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/lit/ - Literature

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10373290 No.10373290 [Reply] [Original]

What are the best WWII books? Preferably nonfiction

>> No.10373311
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10373311

>> No.10374006

Stalingrad by Antony Beever was pretty damn good

>> No.10374029

A Bridge Too Far is my favorite.

Somewhat untalked about subject told in a very riveting narrative.

>>10374006
Reading this at the Moment, don't really care for it.

>> No.10374047

>>10374029

Beevor takes a bit of theatrical license with his prose now and then, but I just really like how he establishes and builds atmosphere. But to each their own. What's A Bridge Too Far about?

>> No.10374050
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10374050

>>10373290

>> No.10374060

>>10374047

Battle of Arnhem.

Massive fuck up for Montgomery and almost every commander involved. Cost a ton of lives, prolonged the war for years because of it's failure.

Also the largest single air operation in history.

>> No.10374242

>>10374050
Anne Frank's gonna be pissed when she finds out people are reading her diary.

>> No.10374248

>>10374050
Non-fiction, you dummy.

>> No.10374478

>>10374050
no

>> No.10374555
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10374555

>>10374060
>Less than 10,000 lost
>prolonged the war for years

>> No.10374599
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10374599

>>10374050

I have this this pitch for an erotic alt-history novel starring a very very pregnant Anne Frank, does anyone want to see it?

>> No.10374686

>>10374599
How very?

>>10374050
Is it true the diary was rewritten by someone after the war with a ballpen?

>> No.10374702
File: 169 KB, 944x623, Battle of Arnhem.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10374702

>>10374060

>Anne Frank died in part because of Market Garden's failure

Dear God, those poor survivors of 1st Airborne must've had their hearts sink when they read her diary a mere three years later.

>> No.10374720
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10374720

>>10374686

39-40 weeks, ready to pop.

I'd write all myself except I'm a shit writer when it comes to stuff like sex scenes. I can do world-building, politics, and action (battles, intense fear, heated arguments, etc.) just fine, but I just can't do human intimacy proper justice. I need a good porn writer for that.

>> No.10374740

>>10374686
>Is it true the diary was rewritten by someone after the war with a ballpen?

Someone who was authenticating the diary scribbled in it by mistake with a ballpoint pen, that's where the rumor started.

The whole ballpoint pen meme is pretty dumb anyway because ballpoints have been around since the 1880s, they just didn't become commercially successful until the 1950s. Since her diary was published in mid-1947, that would mean even if it were a forgery, it would've been in production for at least a year or two before that. Prior to the ballpoint entering the European market.

Also a good forger wouldn't be stupid enough to use a brand new pen that wasn't available at the time the work in question was produced.

t. have read about Nazi efforts to derail the US economy by introducing forged American currency, they got surprisingly good at it.

>> No.10374763

John Keegan's books are pretty good.

Absolutely recommend "The Phantom Major". It's the story of the origins of the SAS and the war in Africa. Really fun to read and the story is unbelievable

>> No.10374766
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10374766

>>10374060
>>10374599
>>10374702
Fuck off NBF

>> No.10374792

John Lukacs books: The Duel, Five Days in London, June 1941, The Hitler of History

>> No.10374836

>>10374766

NBF doesn't browse /lit/ ever

I've been on this board for two years and have not seen him post once.

Now please scurry back home to >>>/pol/ and stay there.

>> No.10374885

Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William Schirer
Nonfiction, excellent accounts of the full history of Nazi Germany as well as insights into the psychology of the individuals who steered it. In school here in the US it is taught as if Hitler just grabbed the reins of power and did his thing, but the situation, as is often the case in history, is far more complex in the levels of political unrest and misguided personal interests

>> No.10374891

>>10374836
>t. Nathan Beford Forrest

>> No.10374928

>>10374891

Not an argument. Now unless you're a talented porn writer who can write me some pregnant Anne Frank smut, please fuck off.

>>10374885

Don't forget Wages of Destruction. Probably the single best book on showing how much of a racket the Nazi economy was.

>> No.10374974

>>10374928
why don't you go back to /his/ faggot, nobody here thinks the pregnant anne frank thing is funny

>> No.10374983
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10374983

Finished this not too long ago. Must advise to stay away. Dreadfully boring read about the author's ramblings about his war time activities, and his takes on any number of topics, military being like... 1/3rd of the subjects. Everything else was disjointed and boring.

>> No.10375103

Volokolamsk Highway, by Alexandr Bek

>> No.10375240

With the old breed by Eugene Sledge. Non-fiction that takes place in the pacific theatre. One of the best first hand accounts I have read.

>> No.10375251

David Irving's books are a gem about Nazi Germany. Sucks you in even though most of them are going through documents. Brilliant writer.

Finnish war literature is quite amazing as a whole, the non-fiction books as a whole literally give you the entire rundown on Finnish war operations from the two wars we fought and it's just unrivaled in its detail and accuracy. You can pretty much read x soldier's account who fought in y officer's company and then read the y company officer's account who served under x people and then read the x people's account. It's something else. Everyone wrote their account.

>> No.10375291
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10375291

>>10375251
>Finnish war literature is quite amazing as a whole
This.

'Unknown soldier' and 'Under the North Star' by Linna are two of the best book on war that I have ever read.

>> No.10375328
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10375328

>>10375291
They're great books. I wish I could translate Finnish to English while retaining the autism. English doesn't quite capture it.

>> No.10375339

>>10375328
>tfw I've lost so much of the Finnish language I can barely understand children's books these days

I'd really like to give them a read in my native tongue, but alas, that'll remain a pipedream...

>> No.10375349
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10375349

>>10375339
Did you move abroad or why do you think "you lost your Finnish language"

>> No.10375364
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10375364

>>10375349
I live in Sweden, and nowadays I only talk Finnish with my parents, and it's never about anything complicated that'd make me learn new words or get better at it. I'm basically just keeping some simple phrases still alive in my memory.

>> No.10375378
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10375378

>>10375364
Sad!

>> No.10375477

>>10375378
I recently got some Päätalo books, I hear they're supposed to be a bit easier to read, so I'll have something to slowly start practicing with. It's quite annoying how hard Finnish is though.

>> No.10375486

>>10373290
Richard Evans Third Reich Trilogy
Churchills Memoirs

>> No.10375520

>>10374050
Geesh, they're not kidding for the nose-thing.

>> No.10375584
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10375584

>>10375477
I have the entire Päätalo bibliography, it's quite the project to read (about 30+ books). One of the most detailed descriptions of a person's & small village's life!

IF you enjoy war literature I recommend Wolf Halsti.

>> No.10375599
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10375599

a ww2 buf recommended this book a while back. If you want a 1st-hand account from a soldier getting shelled by a thousand mortars, and the mayhem of the Russian front this is it. Eloquently written, apocalyptic mind-fuck of a book. There's really nothing like it.

> Richard Evans, William Shirer

These are also great histories. Long and dig up the dirt.

>> No.10375898
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10375898

>>10373290
Ivan's war by Catherine Merridale is pretty good. You get to wonder why you never heard of Operation Bagration before.

>> No.10375906

Life and Fate

>> No.10376410

>>10373311
Good choice.

>> No.10376715

>>10375251
>>10375291
>>10375328
Ok I'm curious. Recommend some good english ones if there are any?

>> No.10376744

>>10376715
There are none. You have been robbed of great treasure.

>> No.10378034

>>10374599

Sounds hot

>> No.10378071
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10378071

>>10374050
Real talk is this worth reading?

pic not related.

>> No.10378120
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10378120

>>10378071

Not as much as the smut it's inspired

pic related

>> No.10378160

>>10373311
Where can I find a reasonably priced copy of this?

>> No.10378212

>>10378160
found this
http://www.fpp.co.uk/books/Hitler/2001/HW_Web_dl.pdf
on
http://www.fpp.co.uk/books/Hitler/
flipped through it seems legit